Hawke’s Bay helicopter heroes honoured for lifesaving work during Cyclone Gabrielle

• Two Hawke’s Bay helicopter pilots and the RNZAF’s No. 3 Squadron have received a humanitarian award for their efforts during Cyclone Gabrielle.
• Joe Faram and Jim Guerin conducted lifesaving operations, rescuing people and delivering supplies amid severe flooding.
• Flight Lieutenant Nicole Brooke and Squadron Leader Andrew Stewart were a big part of RNZAF efforts to rescue hundreds from rooftops.

It was one year after Cyclone Gabrielle hit when helicopter pilot Joe Faram found himself driving around Pākōwhai.

He’d been here before, to rescue dozens of people as the waters surged through the community, but it looked vastly different now.

He had to almost rub his eyes to understand what he was seeing.

“I just thought ‘no way’. I flew people off that house, it’s two storeys, it’s half a kilometre from the river and there was only three feet of roof sticking out,” Faram said.

“You just can’t comprehend it.”

The fact that no-one died in Pākōwhai, which was hit by a mini ocean of water from both sides of the two rivers that surround, is in many ways pure luck.

But it is also down to Joe Faram, of Rotorforce New Zealand and Jim Guerin of Hawke’s Bay Helicopters.

The pair of them, along with the No 3 Squadron of the RNZ Air Force have been awarded the Salute to Excellence Humanitarian Service Award by Vertical Aviation International for their incredible efforts.

But in typical salt-of-the-earth fashion, they brush it off. Guerin says he did what everyone else would, he was “just in a position to help”.

Faram has a base at the Hastings Aerodrome and lives on a nearby hill.

On the night Gabrielle hit, the wind kept Faram awake, but the rain didn’t strike him as particularly heavy.

“The first call was Unison calling me about an hour before daylight saying they had an isolated crew in the Devil’s Elbow and they couldn’t get out,” Faram said.

As Faram was about to get airborne he received a call from Fire and Emergency New Zealand asking if he could do a survey as they were unsure what was happening due to the lack of communication.

Faram flew to Esk Valley and saw the devastation laid out before him. He quickly flew to his mate Rick Graham’s property to make sure he and his family were safe. Faram then took Graham back to base and put him in a chopper to help out Unison.

“I didn’t see him for three weeks,” Faram said of Graham.

“He got that crew and he got that guy that was stuck in the truck [on the Devil’s Elbow].”

Joe Faram and Jim Guerin in the Rotorforce hangar at the Hastings Aerodrome. Photo / Jack Riddell

Jim Guerin, CEO and chief pilot at Helicopters Hawke’s Bay, soon joined Faram in the air.

Together they spent eight weeks working alongside defence and emergency services, who were based at Faram’s hangar during rescue operations.

“I went from rescuing hysterical and terrified people to flying some seasonal workers who were yahooing and excited to get a ride in a helicopter,” recalls Faram.

“One of them even offered me some chips mid-flight.

“It wasn’t until you got them back on solid ground that they got pretty emotional, when they realised what was really going on,” added Guerin.

Faram recalls using the towering powerlines running along the Hawke’s Bay Expressway as a location feature because everything else in the area was underwater.

“I remember thinking somewhere in there is an expressway.”

On the day of the cyclone, houses the team had flown over several times had people starting to appear on the rooftops after forcing their way out, causing the pilots to have to double back.

“They’d climb out of the ceiling cavity and then get out and the whole time you’re thinking ‘how many people are stuck in their ceilings and running out of room,” Guerin said.

“There were lots of rumours going around that first night.”

A photo from Joe Faram's helicopter as he prepared to evacuate people stuck on their roof during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Joe Faram

Faram had his crewman Nathan Ferguson with him. Faram credits Ferguson as having the ability to bring immediate calmness amid chaos.

Faram said he remembers one rescue of an evacuee lying on a roof.

He hovered above as Ferguson lay next to the woman, coaxing her aboard.

“I’ve got my skid on the roof holding Ferguson’s boot so he doesn’t slide off and he’s trying to pull her up,” he said.

Faram remembers the woman’s husband staying next to his wife on the roof because he wasn’t leaving without her.

“We eventually got her into the helicopter, [Ferguson] just said ‘go straight to the hospital’.

“We flew there and she had hypothermia and suffered a stroke.”

Despite the accolades, Faram and Guerin believe anyone in their position would have done the same thing.

“It would’ve been pretty selfish if you didn’t go,” said Guerin.

Faram said it had been a “humbling” two years.

“I run into some people now, you’ve known them for a minute but they greet you like you’re lifetime friends.

“It was really fortunate I had a skill set and aircraft and facility that everyone got to benefit from.”

A RNZAF NH90 helicopter landed at the Bluff Hill look out in Napier. Photo / SGT Jarrod Milligan

The Esk Valley had its helicopter heroes too.

Flight Lieutenant Nicole Brooke and Squadron Leader Andrew Stewart from the No 3 squadron were on standby for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Originally they were expecting to head to Auckland but headed to Hawke’s Bay when communications cut out.

Stewart was in the first helicopter to arrive in Esk Valley.

“It looked like a tidal wave had come down,” recalls Stewart.

“There were still people trapped in houses waving us down. So we got as many people into the machine as possible, winching them up.”

The chopper then moved on to Pakowhai, where Stewart recalls hundreds of people trapped on their roofs. That’s when he radioed base for backup.

Two helicopters arrived later that day and immediately got people off roofs. Brooke was with them.

“The first thing I remember is water everywhere,” she said.

“It was just instant chaos, nobody had any idea it was that extreme.”

Flight Lieutenant Nicole Brooke evacuates people caught in the floods in Hawke's Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / FLTLT Nicole Brooke.

On the first night, the crew found themselves in a Napier motel without power and sharing beds.

“It was kind of three to four people to a bed,” Stewart remembers.

“I don’t think too many people slept that night because you’re just up talking with everyone about what they saw.”

Stewart said the award wasn’t just for the squadron’s pilots and crewmen, it was for the maintenance and communications staff back at the base for their efforts as well.

“The civilian pilots definitely went above and beyond – I think a lot of New Zealanders would’ve done the same thing, but Joe [Faram] definitely did more than he needed to,” added Brooke.

The Awatoto end of Marine Parade in Napier the day after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / FLT LT Nicole Brooke

Stewart and Brooke have stayed in touch with Faram and Guerin, including taking Joe for a flight in an NH90 helicopter.

“I thought it was a ride, and they turned up and insisted I was flying it,” Faram said.

The only two other non-RNZAF pilots to operate the NH90 are Prince William and Richie McCaw, according to Faram.

“They got 15 minutes, I got an hour.”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.